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10.9.17

Have you forgotten?

Like a lot of other people. I was at work that morning. Part of my job for the Navy's Office of the Chief of Information was to keep an eye on 4 or 5 different television news broadcasts during the day in case they ran any stories about the Navy. On this particular morning, there was some crazy story being covered by everybody about an accident involving a plane that had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers.

I wasn't taking it (what I was seeing on the little 4x4 monitors) nearly as seriously as I should have been. Even if it was some poor pilot who lost control of their small plane or there was a navigation malfunction of some sort and they hit one of the towers, it was a big enough tragedy. But at the time, I had other things to do at work and "planes crash all the time, even if not in such a high-profile manner," so I just kept the channels on with no volume and continued my work.

I remember seeing the hole from the plane that hit the towers. I remember thinking that it was almost a perfect outline of a plane. I also remember thinking that I had no idea of the perspective of the image I was looking at - how big was the plane that hit the building? I remember thinking "How wide was that building? Either the building was more narrow than I'd thought (I'd never visited the World Trade Centers) or, if the tower was as big as I had *thought* it was, it was hit by a passenger plane." I remembering thinking "How could any plane accidentally hit the World Trade Center" and that some major navigational malfunction must have happened.

At some point I'd gotten out of my chair and found myself watching 5 different versions of what was going on, with the volume turned up. And then it happened.

I don't remember which channel it was, but I remember my boss came out and was standing next to me watching and, as we watched, we both watched a second plane fly into the frame and hit the second tower. I'd never seen such a thing.

My boss disappeared. Just launched into action, likely to make a secure phone call to somewhere - I don't know, hell, it's all sort of a blur after that.

I called up a coworker who worked in our main office in the Pentagon to ask her if she knew what was going on ... we'd only just been talking a few seconds when she said "I gotta go, we just had an explosion and ... -klik- ..."

Soon we received word that yet another plane had hit the Pentagon. A bunch of us went up on the roof where we worked but could see nothing but a plume of smoke. We were soon on 'lockdown' and, from what I remember, I spent at least one night on the floor in my office. None of us knew if our coworkers in the Pentagon were alive, or to what the extent the building had been damaged.

Calls home - calls *anywhere* were nearly impossible. Phone lines were jammed. Nobody could call anybody. And, of course, the lives of all of us, especially in the U.S. military, had been changed forever.

It bothers me a little bit more as each year has passed since, that the 9-11 attacks have seemed to become a distant memory to many to people. But it's unavoidable. As time passes, lives go on.

Have a think about this:

A coworker pointed out to me last week that the group of folks who will be joining the U.S. military next year, maybe even *this* year for some, will be the 1st group of folks who were not born yet on 9-11. They don't have the memory of the chaos of September 11th, 2001 and the events which unfolded afterward seared into their minds. And yet the majority of those people will be spending much of their waking lives for the next 4, 5, 6 or more years fighting the ideology that had these guys plan, plot, train and carry out those attacks on that day.

But! Here's the thing: all this has happened before.

I've come to look at 9-11 over the past 16 (can you believe it? 16?) years in this way: it was just like the attack on Pearl Harbor. It wasn't 'something new.' It happened before. It was just different.

- In the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, over 2,400 people were killed - most of them U.S. servicemen and women.

- In the attacks on NY, Wash., D.C., and the crash in PA, over 2,900 people were killed. Only this time, they attacked *everybody.*

So what do the 2 attacks have in common? They were attacks. They were attacks on America and on Americans. Attacks on Americans on American soil. And we're not supposed to allow that to happen. It makes us look weak and stupid.

We screwed up, made some mistakes, and 'they surprised us' in 1941.

The same thing happened in 2001. We screwed up and made some mistakes and 'they surprised us' again.

No matter who the "they" is, I think there will always be a "they." Always.

Now, mind you, I wasn't around for the events of Pearl Harbor, the chaos of the World War that ensued, but I sure hope that we don't forget our country's history again and become complacent to the point of being blind to what's going around us (earbud people) to the extent that, in another 50 or 60 years, we let this happen again.

My mother doesn't remember the Pearl Harbor attacks either, but what she *does* remember is 'drills' for air raids. Having to turn out the lights, pull down window shades and hide under furniture. That's an example of the 'after effects' of that particular historical attack.

Something quite similar has resulted from the 9-11 attacks. We have our own updated set of 'after effects.'

Now, if you're one of those folks who walks around in public and uses some form or another of mass transportation while listening to your music or your favorite podcast pumped into your head from your gadget of choice, this is going to be impossible for you to do (or perhaps comprehend), but to those who *do* pay attention to their surroundings:

You know those posters that tell you to pay attention to what's going on around you? You've seen them, those signs you see posted around your train stations, in the Metro, etc. The ones that say things like "If you see something, SAY SOMETHING!" Those are in our lives because of attacks on America; 9-11, the Boston Marathon, the Oklahoma City Bombing, etc. Somebody finally got the idea to educate the public to PAY ATTENTION!

Here's a clip of an interview with actor James Woods who, in August of 2001, about 1 month prior to the 9-11 attacks, *saw* something he didn't think was right. And they didn't have those posters back then.

But he said something anyway.

One final thought:

Our involvement in WWII after the attack at Pearl Harbor ended in less than 4 years.

It's been over 16 years since the attacks of September 11th, 2001 ... 16 years.

The ideologies which motivated the terrorists to do what they did are *still* being followed and still motivating other terrorists (mostly lonely losers, it seems, after analyses/profiling is conducted) ... AFTER 16 YEARS!!!! This isn't a conventional war.